


Chicken and Corn Soup

by Ad_Astra



Category: Free!
Genre: Alcohol, Director!Nagisa, Humour, Idol!Rin, M/M, Manager!Kisumi, Seiyuu!Makoto, Seiyuu!Sousuke, alternate universe - voice actors, cheap lecherous jokes, dorksuke, other characters playing minor roles - Freeform, second hand embarrassment, sound effects guy / cover artist!Haru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-04-30 14:30:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5167328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ad_Astra/pseuds/Ad_Astra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seiyuu AU. In which award-winning VA Yamazaki Sousuke lands his first BL role co-starring with BL veteran and fujoshi magnet Tachibana Makoto, Kisumi and Rin win best wingmen of the year, and Things. Happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chicken and Corn Soup

**Author's Note:**

  * For [risotto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/risotto/gifts).



> The following fic is probably _not_ an accurate portrayal of the Japanese voice acting industry-- I've done some research but many liberties were still taken for the sake of the story. 
> 
> Also, this isn't as polished or as refined as I'd like it to be (to put it mildly), because when I first started this fic, I thought it'd be done in a maximum of 5k words... and then it took a mind of its own, leading to this 19k word monstrosity. I will hopefully tweak this a little more someday, but for now, I hope it's coherent enough for your reading pleasure.
> 
> A last note of warning: please be ready for loads of second hand embarrassment -- this contains DELIBERATELY TERRIBLE SEX DIALOGUE, and deliberately god-awful sex plots, mentions of sex toys, and all the terrible BL tropes your mom never told you about.

"So, Yamazaki-san, how does it feel to win your first voice acting award?"

Sousuke leans back against the studio's leather couch and smiles sheepishly as he has been instructed to do. "I'm still reeling to be honest," he confesses. "I never expected to get nominated, much less win."

"So modest of you," the interviewer coos, expensive jewelry flashing from the glare of the studio lights. "Do you have any favourite voice actors?"

" _I'm_ my favourite," Sousuke answers cheekily. The audience laughs, along with the interviewer, and Sousuke waits a few beats before continuing. "Seriously though, my inspiration for fulfilling my seiyuu dream has always been Yoshimasa Hosoya.  He is such a talented man.”

"Mmm. I agree. Moving on, I’ve heard that your recent duet with Matsuoka Rin has caused quite a storm among both your fans. Any news about working on other projects with him?

"For now no, but we do welcome any opportunity to work together."

"I see, I see. So far you've participated in otome, videogames, dubbing and anime. Any plans for expanding your repertoire?"

"Well, I'm willing to try anything once," Sousuke answers with a one-shouldered shrug. "It's always good to have diversity."

"That's true. Well then, that's—" The interviewer pauses when a staff member walks in and hands her an envelope. "Ah, it appears we have a question from the audience," she declares, slipping out a piece of paper. Her eyes widen as she reads the contents, before glancing at Sousuke, smiling delightedly like she just won the purse of her dreams. It is not a comforting gesture, but Sousuke forces himself to keep up the pleasantly interested facade all the same.

The interviewer crosses her legs before turning towards the camera, brandishing the paper in front of her. "Would you," she starts coyly. "Be willing to try Boys Love?"

The smile freezes on Sousuke's face. That definitely  _wasn't_  in the list of questions Kisumi gave him. "Uh..." He clears his throat and looks away, scratching the back of his neck, a gesture that his fans have reportedly classified as the patented 'Dorksuke stalling tactics,' and to be honest, they're actually on point this time. A hush comes over the studio as Sousuke racks his brain for a way to answer this question gracefully. He scans the front row, quickly locating Kisumi, who just shrugs helplessly, gesturing at him to hurry up.

"Yamazaki-san?" the interviewer prompts, not even hiding the fact that she's enjoying watching Sousuke squirm.

He feels warm— too warm, the bright lights of the studio causing sweat to pool at the back of his neck, and the scattered murmurs that have begun to spring up among the crowd are only making things worse.

There's no helping it then. He takes a deep breath, and prays to whoever deity out there that he doesn't end up regretting his words later on. "...Like I said," he starts slowly, forcing himself to keep cool. "I'm willing to try anything  _once_."

Immediately, the audience erupts in loud boisterous cheers and it is the least reassuring approval that Sousuke's ever heard.

*

That interview was aired  _two hours_  ago. Now, he's back in his condominium in Shibuya, having lunch, and trying to process the fact that the very thing he has sweated over in front of live television is no longer a tentative possibility, but a distinct _reality._

Kisumi is sitting in front of him, snacking on Sousuke's sushi with a triumphant grin on his face, after it became apparent that Sousuke has temporarily lost the ability to keep food in his mouth, seeing as it's currently hanging open, like a feeding whale.

"Don't act so shocked Sousuke, you just declared to the world at large that you're planning to expand your repertoire and that you're willing to try anything once," Kisumi chides, repeating Sousuke's exact words before snatching a pair of chopsticks and filching a marbled strip of beef from Sousuke's gyuudon bowl. "You know what they say about doors and windows and opportunity knocking."

Sousuke blinks again and manages to work his jaw closed before he starts drooling over his plate. "You landed me a gay porn job. For my next project." he clarifies.

"An _audio_ gay porn job," Kisumi corrects. "A BL CD. Though if you're looking to move into actual gay porn, just let me know, I know several studios that would kill to have—"

"—Kisumi, you can't just book projects for me without my approval," Sousuke cuts in, as the full scope of the situation finally registers to him. He's not really the type to panic, but getting volunteered for pornography should certainly warrant an exception.

Kisumi doesn't even look perturbed; he just keeps on eating Sousuke's food as if he's been expecting this, and if Sousuke is to be completely honest, Kisumi had probably written out this exact scenario in his head and Sousuke is playing right into it. "Relax, the deal's not valid without a contract. But trust me, you will _not_ want to pass it up."

Somehow, Sousuke seriously doubts that. "Kisumi, I can't do BL, that's an entirely new level of voice acting altogether."

"Of course you can do BL," Kisumi quips breezily. "You went to a voice acting school. You _studied_ this."

Well yes, in terms of ability, every voice actor worth their salt should know how to moan and grunt through a love scene, but that's hardly the point he's trying to make. But before he can further elaborate, his phone rings, and "Crybaby Shark" flashes on his phone screen.

Great, not even an hour's notice, this has got to be a new record or something. Sousuke closes his eyes and breathes deeply, before sliding the green call button to answer. "Rin."

"You owe me ten thousand yen, your autographed Utada Hikaru CD, and your pride on a platter," Rin crows through the phone and Sousuke can practically _hear_ Rin's smug grin through the phone static. "Also Gou says congratulations; she's very excited for your new project."

Sousuke glowers at Kisumi who just says "oops" and covers his mouth, looking anything but apologetic. He almost forgot about their little wager.

Sousuke and Rin had a running bet about who would be the first to cave in to the mysterious world of BL in their respective careers, where in the loser will pay up and suck up. The money is basically pocket change for Sousuke now, but his pride is something that he refuses to give up without a fight. "I haven't accepted yet."

"Oh but you will," Rin says confidently. There's the sound of wind whistling, which means that Rin's probably driving with the windows down again. "Do you know who your co-star is yet?"

"I don't even know anything apart from the fact that it's BL," Sousuke replies, exasperated. "Kisumi literally just told me a minute ago. I've only started eating lunch." He swats at Kisumi's hand which is currently trying to pilfer the last piece of salmon sashimi from Sousuke's tray.

"Huh. Put me on speaker."

"Why, so you can both gang up on me?"

"No, because I want to hear him munch your lunch— duh, of course we're going to gang up on you."

Sousuke scowls. "You guys are jerks."

"We're your best friends, we're entitled to act like jerks," Rin retorts, just in time for it to resound through Sousuke's phone speakers.

"Hi Rin," Kisumi calls out lazily, now taking a sip of Sousuke's tea, since his salmon thievery has not been successful. "He doesn't know any details yet."

"Should I tell him or should you?" Rin asks.

"Tell me what?" Sousuke grouses, growing impatient now. "And why do you know everything before I do— last I recall Kisumi's _my_ manager."

"Probably because Rin's the one who gave me the tip about the casting call?" Kisumi answers.

"And you didn't notify me immediately, why?"

"Well Rin's going to tell you right now, so stop complaining."

"Iwatobi studios is doing an X-rated spin-off of their Jo Jo Romantica series," Rin says, cutting to the chase. "It's called Oh Oh Erotica, and it's basically a collection of various X-rated dream scenarios employing all popular BL tropes this side of Japan."

"Oh Oh Erotica," Sousuke repeats dumbly. "I just got awarded best voice actor in a supporting role for a historical war drama and I'm following it up with something called Oh _Oh Erotica?_!"

"That's your issue?" Rin scoffs. "The title?"

"Why, would you be more accepting of the role if it was called something more esoteric?" Kisumi asks.

Sousuke can feel his right eyelid twitching dangerously. "What the fuck even is an esoteric porn title?" 

"I don't know, hmmm maybe uh, Love Lance: Quest for the Salty Elixir of Life?"

Sousuke dribbles tea down his shirt while on the other end of the phone, the sound of screeching tires can be heard loudly over the speakers.

Kisumi raises an eyebrow. "What?"

"I'm going to fire you," Sousuke threatens, after wiping his mouth.

"I could have lived happily without hearing the words 'salty elixir of life,' " Rin moans. "You just ruined RPGs for me forever."

"Then aren't you glad your project is simply called 'Oh Oh Erotica'?" Kisumi shoots back, tossing Sousuke a table napkin to wipe away his slobber. "Anyway Sousuke, you're going to accept this deal because it's our way to finally break in to Iwatobi studios."

"Also, you got the best possible person to co-star with for your BL debut," Rin adds.

Sousuke sighs, and resigns himself to not finishing his lunch. "And that is?"

"Tachibana Makoto."

Sousuke's jaw doesn't drop open, but his grip on his chopsticks slackens, clattering on his plate. "You're kidding."

Tachibana Makoto is one of the most sought after voice actors in the industry— he's done everything from otome games to dubbing to hardcore BL, even launching a singing career as lead vocalist in a rock band. It's a well-known fact that his drama CDs sell just by virtue of him being in one of the leading roles. Sousuke has heard about his BL work but he's never had the chance to listen for more than a few distracted moments, though he's read the reviews— Tachibana appears to have amazing vocal range and he is extremely versatile. On a more relevant note, his body of BL work is also one of the most prolific in the industry, and he has the corresponding fan clubs to prove it.

"Nope. You've landed the big fish, Sousuke," Rin says, actually sounding proud of him, which is a weird thing, seeing as this isn't exactly the most upstanding example of a proper livelihood.

"Makoto's CDS are the ones that get international licenses, and he has a veritable cavalcade of fujoshi tuning in to his every fabricated moan." Kisumi adds, rubbing his hands gleefully. "I'm expecting a bonus after this okay?"

"Ask me again after the job is done," Sousuke retorts. Why are they so sure that Sousuke is going to accept anyway? "Also, 'Makoto?' So you guys are on first-name basis now?"

"I introduced Kisumi to Makoto last week," Rin explains. "They hit it off pretty well."

"He's so lovely Sousuke!" Kisumi exclaim, propping his chin on his hand, a dreamy look on his face. "And such a  _gentleman_! I kind of wish I pursued my own career in voice acting, maybe I would be doing sex scenes with him by now." He bites his lip and lets out an exaggerated, forlorn sigh. "But since I'm not, I guess I'll just have to live vicariously through you."

"Would you believe, he's actually very excited to work with you," Rin continues after a while, when Sousuke stays silent, stubborn to the very end. "Someone's got a fan, it would seem."

The blare of car horns resounds in the quiet of Sousuke's dining room, as both Rin and Kisumi let Sousuke think about it, and against his better judgement, Sousuke actually _does_. Normally, if he's set against something, nothing short of a miracle can convince him to change his mind. But on the other hand, Rin's words make him reconsider- his best friend doesn't pay lip service, not especially to Sousuke, even if it winds up in his favour.

And Kisumi... well. For all that Kisumi has a penchant of being contrary and driving Sousuke nuts with his negotiation tactics, he always has Sousuke's best interests at heart, and he has an uncanny sense of knowing which roles would be beneficial for Sousuke's career.

On the other hand... this stupid bet with Rin aside, BL really isn't something Sousuke sees himself doing on a regular basis— though it's common knowledge that once you enter the BL scene, you don't really stop.

But then again, he does have plans of expanding his voice acting portfolio and if he's going to try out new things, now's a good time as any. Not to mention the fact that his fan base had been apparently waiting for this announcement all this time, judging from how his BL quote is all over Twitter now. "Fine. I'll accept."

Rin whoops loudly over the phone. "Alright, I'm gonna go tell Makoto the good news!" The phone static buzzes, and Sousuke hears the sound of the hand break disengaging, followed by the purr of an engine. "Listen, I gotta go, I'll catch up with you guys soon! Text me the details Kisumi."

Rin drops the line before either Kisumi or Sousuke can reply and Sousuke pinches the bridge of his nose, wondering what exactly he just got himself into. He feels something tapping against his knuckles, and he glances up, nearly getting his eye poked out by the USB Kisumi is pointing in his direction.

"I just replied to Ryuugazaki-san. The cast is all set, and we'll be meeting with the director first thing on Monday. In the meantime..." He places the USB in Sousuke's hand, and curls it in his fingers. "Here are some of Makoto's past performances in his more prominent BL roles. Please review them, take notes, and try to get some practice in so you don't sound like a dying whale on the actual recording."

*                             

From the pictures, Tachibana Makoto looks like the typical boy-next-door type, with the kind of generic doe-eyed face and bright killer smile that girls fall all over for. 

Which is why he is _not_ expecting Tachibana to be six-foot tank of top-quality muscle— the guy is _ripped_ , almost as much as Sousuke. He's wearing ordinary clothes: black v-necked shirt with some mysterious English words on them, though they could be gibberish for all the difference they make. Sousuke's eye is easily drawn to the shape of Makoto's muscles beneath - the valley of his pecs peeking out from where the sharp dip of the shirt ends, the cuts on his arms stark against the folds of shirt sleeves when he flexes. He's also wearing dark jeans that Sousuke suspects are at least two sizes too small, owing to how they sculpt so closely to the shape of his ass and thighs.

That by itself is hardly something that would catch Sousuke's attention, but if you pair up that body with that kind, bespectacled face, then it becomes difficult to overlook.

No wonder his female fan base is terrifying.

He'd feel guilty about ogling him so blatantly, if it isn't for the ten other people, including Kisumi, who are doing the same.

Tachibana's face lights up when he spots Sousuke. "Yamazaki-san!" he greets, hurrying over and holding out a hand. "I'm Tachibana Makoto. It's so wonderful to finally have a chance to work with you!"

Tachibana's grip is strong and firm, and his palm is warm against Sousuke's. "The pleasure is all mine Tachibana-san," Sousuke says, returning the handshake with equal conviction. "I'm fortunate that my first foray into adult BL material is with a veteran like yourself."

As soon as the words leave Sousuke's mouth, he immediately wants to gobble them back. He might as well have said "I'm so lucky to be working with a seasoned porn star like you."

Tachibana doesn't seem to mind. He just smiles, warm and easy, as his grip slackens around Sousuke's hand before pulling away.

"It's not exactly the most glamorous of jobs," he admits. "But it makes a lot of people happy, so I'm happy to do it."

"Making people happy" is not exactly the line of reasoning Sousuke would use to justify making a living out of audio porn, but if that's what Tachibana tells himself at night to make himself feel better, than far be it for Sousuke to burst his bubble.

"Right," Sousuke replies, nodding. "That's... that's very er, _thoughtful_ of you."

Tachibana chuckles, and it's a surprisingly  _delicate_  sound, light and airy, which is again a total contrast to his handsome looks. "Well, that and it's high demand and makes a decent amount of money."

Okay, finally something Sousuke can fully agree with— Kisumi had all but burst into happy tears when he saw the contract amount. "That's true," he muses. "I think it's only right because let's be real, BL is not something everyone can do well."  He smiles crookedly. "Guess I'll find that out about myself pretty soon." 

"Yes well... it starts off really embarrassing but you'll get used to it, the more you do it," Tachibana answers reassuringly. He tilts his head to the side, still all smiles and sunshine. "Shall we head inside?"

Sousuke makes a gallant, sweeping gesture with his right hand and cocks his head to the side. "After you."

*

Their director is Hazuki Nagisa, a bright, bubbly young man who apparently has a reputation of having the most unorthodox production practices in the industry, which worries Sousuke a little because "unorthodox" + "gay audio porn" is a combination he honestly would _not_ recommend.

"So the story goes like this," Hazuki starts, waving around a lollipop, as his legs swing to and fro from his perch on the table. "Akira— that's you Sou-chan— is a scientist who owns a really gorgeous Himalayan cat called Professor Plutonyan Meowsma Alejandro Fluffington. Pu-chan for short."

Sousuke already doesn't like where this is going.

"One day, Pu-chan accidentally wanders into Akira's chem lab, and crashes into one of his experimental chemicals, to unknown effect."

The additional info causes a wave of murmurs among the staff, and Hazuki beams scooting off the table to continue.

"Now, for the first few days, there appears to be no problem. Things go on as usual, Akira doing mad scientist things in the morning and playing with Pu-chan... until his new neighbour moves in." Hazuki's voice takes in an ominous tone as he dramatically turns to Tachibana. "Enter, Yui, a struggling college student who secretly supplements his studies by freelancing as a male stripper for bachelorette parties. Akira is immediately smitten with him. They become friends, with both of them secretly seeking something more but holding back. Yui doesn't want Akira to find out about his stripper side line, and Akira holds back because he's not sure about Yui being into men."

Yeah, Sousuke _really_ doesn't like where this is going.

"So one day, while cat sitting for Akira, Yui accidentally gets bitten by Pu-chan."

Beside Sousuke, Kisumi perks up. "Ooh, and he gets super powers right?! Cat ones, like super hearing, perfect balance and the ability to fit into fish bowls."

"Yes~!" Hazuki exclaims, thrilled by Kisumi's enthusiasm. "So yeah, Yui now has super hearing, amazing flexibility, and the ability to climb huge trees and always land on his feet."

Okay, Sousuke had predicted radioactive cat hair aphrodisiac, but this is actually not _that_ bad. "I thought we were doing a BL drama?"

"I was just getting to that part," Hazuki answers, rubbing his hands gleefully. "You know what they say, with great kitten powers..." He pauses, waiting until a great hush overcomes the room, everyone hanging on to his next words, before finally whispering, with much aplomb. "Comes great kitty _heats_."

The room enters stunned silence afterwards.

It probably says a lot about his and Tachibana's professionalism that they do not bat an eye at this, though it's becoming increasingly hard for Sousuke to remain stone-faced when Kisumi starts clapping his hands so vigorously behind him, looking absolutely _delighted_. He wonders how much of that is genuine admiration for Nagisa's creative genius and how much is the bit where he's trying to gain brownie points with the big shot directors in the industry.

Hazuki beams, appreciative of Kisumi's support, and turns towards his two main stars. "Here's the script for the first CD," he says, holding out one copy each.

Sousuke warily accepts his, and Kisumi immediately leans over his shoulder to look. The first page of the script looks like standard stuff: establishing scenery, brief summary of the plot, and a section focusing on elaborate descriptions of Akira's charmingly dishevelled looks and reclusive genius sex appeal.

Granted, this is far from the worst concept Sousuke has ever encountered— this is Japan, the land of weird and disturbing but still. Radioactive cat causing superpowers used for sex is a far cry from his previous role as a tragic war hero during World War II.

Meanwhile, Tachibana is already going through several pages of his own copy, eyes completely focused, no trace of apprehension on his face at all, a veteran of this sensitive craft in every sense of the word.

"Are you excited for your first ever BL drama, Sou-chan?" Hazuki asks.

"Ecstatic," Sousuke says flatly, and Kisumi elbows him in the ribs for that, though this obvious lack of enthusiasm doesn't appear to deter Hazuki a single bit.

"Ahahahaha, I see you're already getting in-character Sou-chan! Such professionalism!" Hazuki coos, and Sousuke can't tell if Hazuki is fucking with him or being obliviously sincere. "How about you Mako-chan? I mean I know this is old hat to you but I'm sure you've never played a catboy with super powers before."

"Um, I've actually played a catboy and someone with powers before, only separately," Tachibana admits, scratching the back of his head. "Also, neither was used for sex."

"Well, there you go; it's good to have variety on the job!" Hazuki declares, putting his hands on his hips as if that settled the matter.

Tachibana just smiles, like playing a super powered cat boy in heat is a role that fills him with inexplicable joy. "That's true. I'll do my best, Nagisa!"

"Great! Now, I'll give you both the rest of the afternoon off— I suggest you guys get to know each other better, try to work on that sexual chemistry for tomorrow's first recording."

With that, Hazuki gives them both a hearty pat on the back, waves cheerily at Kisumi and then flits off to wherever BL drama directors go after inflicting horrible porn plots to their unsuspecting voice actors.

Kisumi waves back until Nagisa disappears out the door before rounding on Sousuke, frowning in disapproval. "Will you stop being such an ass about this?

"I can't help it, you heard the plot," Sousuke grouses, folding his arms.

"So? I thought it was pretty creative."

Sousuke snorts. " _You_ would."

"Hey at least you're not the one playing a cat person in heat," Kisumi retorts, before he remembers that Tachibana is still there with them and he hastily makes backtracking movements with his hands. "Not that I meant it's a terrible role..."

"It's okay, I know how Yamazaki-san feels," Makoto says consolingly. "I felt stupid about my first BL role too."

Kisumi smiles in relief before throwing Sousuke a sly glance, and hefting his satchel on his shoulder. "Alright, well you guys heard what Nagisa-san said," he says, clapping a hand on the shoulders on either side of him. "I'll leave you two alone to sort out your roles, yeah?"

Before Sousuke can protest, he turns around and leaves, blowing a kiss at them as he does so. "Please take care of him, Makoto!" he shouts over his shoulder as he heads off.

Tachibana waves back cheerfully before turning towards Sousuke. "Would you like to go out with me?"

Sousuke blinks. "Excuse me?"

"For coffee. To review the script," Tachibana clarifies, still smiling. "It would really help if we can figure out the dynamics of our characters beforehand. And Nagisa did say we should get to know each other better..."

"Ah. Right." Of course. Sousuke squares his shoulders and shoves the hand that isn't holding the script into his pocket. Far be it for him to disobey director's orders. "First thing's first," he says, allowing himself a gracious smile for Tachibana's sake. "Call me Sousuke."

Tachibana brightens up, his smile reaching his eyes, and Sousuke immediately likes him a little more. "Then, please call me Makoto!"

*

The two of them end up in a private room of a Paper Moon cafe in the same building, one where Makoto apparently gets plenty of special treatment, judging at how he just breezes past the "no entry" sign hanging on the door of their VIP lounge area and how half the waiting staff scramble all over themselves to assist him.

"So you're really not that bothered by your role? At all?" Sousuke asks, as he takes a sip from his unsweetened pressed coffee.

Makoto shakes his head and digs another forkful of his chocolate mille crepe. "Not really. I've been doing BL for a while now, and I've had worse, believe me."

"Hmm. Would you take it against me if I say I'm not surprised?" Sousuke asks, a hint of teasing in his tone. "Is that a terrible thing to say?"

Makoto laughs and Sousuke can't help smiling back, marvelling at the ease with which the two of them are getting along. He thought Makoto would be too soft for him, or too reclusive, which, in hind-sight is a really dumb thing to expect from someone who does voice porn for a living. "Not really. You're not the first person to ask how I feel about my profession, you know."

"Well, do you enjoy it at least?" Sousuke presses. He needs to know if this repertoire-expansion venture won't be an excruciating exercise of patience.

"Sometimes," Makoto says with a short chuckle. "No seriously, it's fun when you just remember it's all part of the job," he adds when Sousuke gives him an incredulous look. "You get used to it. It's automatic by now. The embarrassment never goes away but it's just a matter of swallowing it down and pushing through."

That was.... an interesting choice of words but Sousuke decides not to look too deeply into it. Makoto is the expert here after all. "Well, if the king of BL says so," he finally answers, smirking when Makoto nearly sloshes coffee all over himself, the tip of his ears a brilliant pink, even as he stammers out an unintelligible denial, which Sousuke pretends not to hear.

Instead, he picks up the script and leans back against his chair, darting his eyes between it and Makoto. "So," he starts. "Are we reviewing the script now or do you want to do this whole getting to know each other better first...?"

*

They spend a total of three hours in the cafe, one hour of which is spent... well, getting to know each other better. They mostly talked about how they each began their voice acting careers: which school they went to, which genre they'd like to specialize in (Makoto readily admits that BL is sort of one of them for him), before their conversation eventually segues to common friends in the industry. 

It turns out that Rin and Makoto went to the same voice acting school, which thus led to how they spend their second hour: swapping embarrassing stories about Rin, of which there are plenty (Sousuke is _delighted_ at the amount of blackmail material this venture has produced). The last hour is spent discussing tips and tricks in the delicate art of engaging their legions of fan girls: Makoto claims that looking into their eyes while smiling makes them go still and quiet, enabling him to walk to his next destination in peace, while Sousuke is a little less charitable and simply hands Kisumi a bunch of merchandise before throwing him at them.

Zero hours were spent actually talking about the script, because both their schedules are quite tight, and they got carried away with the socializing bit of their assignment. Nonetheless, at the end of the afternoon, Sousuke still walks away empty of what little BL-performance jitters he has left in his system. Makoto has a calming effect on people it would seem, his various stories and anecdotes about his past BL performances somewhat putting Sousuke at ease, even if the contents of said stories are not always of the comforting variety.

He leaves the cafe feeling a bit more optimistic than when he first came in. Maybe he won't regret this decision after all.

*

When Sousuke returns to Iwatobi's voice room the next day, he finds the director and another person with jet black hair talking to Makoto. Makoto spots him immediately and waves, beckoning him over.

"Sousuke, hello!" he greets warmly as he gestures to the boy beside him. "This is my best friend Nanase Haruka— he's in charge of the sound effects for this production."

Oh the sound effects guy. Depending on one's perspective, it's either the most fun or the most traumatizing job in a BL production. Sousuke wonders which one Nanase falls under.

He's about to offer his hand in greeting when Nanase looks up at Sousuke, his alarmingly blue eyes intense despite the nonchalance of his expression. Sousuke is a bit taken aback. Nanase is clearly sizing him up for some bizarre reason, and he's not even bothering to be discreet about it.

Unable to help himself, Sousuke glares back. What is this guy's problem?

After an awkward couple of seconds, Nanase shrugs and turns back towards Makoto, busying himself with his equipment, as if he didn't just engage Sousuke in some impromptu stare down contest. Sousuke decides not to think too much about it and chalks it up to plain weirdness. 

"Have you read the script Haru?" Makoto inquires, oblivious to the silent tension that just happened between them.

"Yes, I only bought soy pudding today," Nanase answers, bringing out a small plastic container and setting them on his work counter behind the sound booth.

"Yeah, it's just masturbation today after all," Makoto answers thoughtfully.

"Tomorrow, I'll bring the noodles," Nanase says, as he sets up his other tools— a zipper, some straws, a large bowl of water, and several coil springs.

Makoto picks up a straw and hands it to Haru. "Isn't that too squishy for a solo act?"

"Nagisa says there's natural slick involved so best be prepared."

Makoto groans weakly, and Haru shrugs in response, before fixing him a pointed look, head turning partially in Sousuke's direction. Makoto blanches, and then quickly acknowledges Sousuke with an overly brilliant smile, before peering down at his script again, an interesting shade of red slowly creeping across the back of his neck.

Sousuke raises an eyebrow. What was that all about?

"Yes, they do that a lot," a new voice says behind him. Sousuke turns around to see a bespectacled young man with navy blue hair stepping to his right side. "You'll get used to it eventually." He faces Sousuke and holds out a hand. "Ryuugazaki Rei, marketing director of Iwatobi Studios."

"Yamazaki Sousuke, currently playing that mad horny scientist with the radioactive cat," Sousuke replies, shaking Ryuugazaki's hand.

Ryuugazaki makes a huffing sound of mild distress, and adjusts his glasses. "Yes I'm aware. You have to forgive our eccentric plot— it never occurred to me that adult material with animal characteristics is a widely consumed trope. However, focus group discussions among female yaoi fans aged 16 to 24 have suggested otherwise, and so we had no excuse not to go with it."

"You do focus group discussions on BL tropes?" Sousuke asks. It sounds like overkill, especially when a quick browse on the internet would probably tell anyone all they'd needed to know about fujoshi preferences, but Sousuke can't help getting impressed all the same.

"Of course. I've always been an advocate of using both qualitative and quantitative data in order to make informed decisions about the studio's creative process," Ryuugazaki answers primly. "The market research isn't expensive at all, since twitter analytics is free, and there is no shortage of willing respondents for focus groups, considering our subject matter."

"Why, what do you use for incentives?" Sousuke asks with a smirk.

Rei coughs and takes a couple of beats to reply. "A variety of things," he eventually answers, sounding like it's taking a lot from him to admit to this. "...but we found out a long time ago what lengths some fans will go to for personalized messages from Makoto-san and Rin-san."

Sousuke nods, understanding completely. "Ah."

Before he can make any further inquiries however, Nagisa's cheerful voice booms across the studio. "Alright, places everyone! Let's get this show on the road!"

Rei bids him a quick goodbye, and Sousuke immediately heads over to his own stand, but not before he sees Makoto looking at him, his grin almost blinding in its brightness.

"Good luck, Sousuke," he says simply, before taking the spot right in front of him.

Sousuke takes a deep breath, gaining confidence from the encouragement in Makoto's smile.

It's go time.

*

The first of Sousuke's BL trials goes smoothly— while he's still getting used to grunting and moaning into the microphone, this part was a simple masturbation scene, so the sound effects used weren't anything too jarring (soy-pudding squishing on resin surface, according to Nanase). Hazuki had been satisfied to say the least, and Makoto had congratulated him personally on his performance. 

The second session goes without a hitch as well, and Sousuke finally gets to know first-hand how Makoto works in this particular voice acting arena, and to say that he's impressed is a severe understatement.

He's embarrassed to say the least, but not really in the way he _should_   be. Under normal circumstances, hearing his co-worker pretend to thoroughly enjoy fingering himself in the ass would make him cringe.

Instead, he finds himself swallowing, his imagination growing wild as Makoto's voice lends such beautiful realism to the act he's performing— he didn't just grunt or moan mechanically into the microphone— he was really _into_ his role, filling the spaces between his moans with breathless sighs, adding unquestionable character to his voice.

It sounds so realistic that Sousuke somewhat feels like a voyeur, which is just about right, since in this specific scene, Sousuke's extremely problematic character Akira watches Yui from his balcony with the aid of high tech, x-ray vision binoculars, while Yui showers and fingers himself to the thoughts of getting boned by his favourite mad scientist.

He fights to control his breathing, when Makoto's voice crescendos into what sounds like a mind-blowing orgasm, and without meaning to, he mutters "fuck" into the microphone.

Everyone turns to look at him, surprised. Nanase in particular, has narrowed his eyes at him, while Kisumi has his hands over his mouth, the look on his face practically broadcasting "I told you so" through the glass.

Panicking, he immediately blurts out the line of the opening scene of the next act, hoping to pass it off as a reading mistake. "Yui..." he intones in a gravelly, possessive voice.  "Someday you'll be mine." He adds in exaggerated heavy breathing as an afterthought, hoping to at least fool Hazuki and Makoto, if he couldn't fool Kisumi and Nanase.

It seems like he did the right thing because Nagisa nods approvingly, looking absolutely delighted at Sousuke's mad adlib skills before yelling "cut!"

Relieved, Sousuke immediately steps away from the mic, pulse roaring in his ears. He can't believe he just did that.

"That was pretty good Sou-chan!" Hazuki exclaims, as he makes his way inside the voice room. "Now that I think about it, it's much better to have Akira react immediately and hold listeners in suspense, instead of leaving it off for the next act."

"Well, I've observed that possessive top is a very popular trope among girls," Sousuke lies, years of acting experience affording him the ability to recite unfounded bullshit with a straight face. "Sorry for superseding your direction, but it just felt... er, right at that time."

Nagisa beams. "No worries, I'm a big advocate of doing what you feel is right! You're the one who is playing this character after all, so please follow your instincts if you really feel strongly about them! Same instruction goes for you too, okay Mako-chan?"

Sousuke catches Makoto looking at him with with eyes full of awe and admiration, and Sousuke feels even worse. "Yes of course Nagisa," Makoto answers, his already sunny smile powering up to an even greater wattage. "That was really good Sousuke! As expected from an award-winning voice actor!'

"It's no big deal," Sousuke mumbles, avoiding Kisumi's knowing eyes. He quickly steps away from the microphone and tilts his head towards the door. "Anyway, if we're done, Kisumi and I need to leave, busy schedule you know." He deliberately ignores Kisumi's look of surprise, and all but drags him off towards the door.

"Oh okay." Makoto offers them a small wave in parting. "See you tomorrow!"

Sousuke responds with a stiff nod and walks out of the studio without looking back, feeling his cheeks burn in the cold autumn air.

*

"If you text one word of this to Rin, I swear I will introduce your cell phone to your prostate," Sousuke threatens, when Kisumi starts tapping out a message on his smartphone.

Kisumi doesn't react to the threat (he never does); instead he calmly presses send and holds his phone out to Sousuke. "I wasn't going to," he says. "I was texting Hayato, see?"

Sousuke looks at the screen suspiciously and confirms Kisumi's claims. "Good," he mutters, resuming their walk. "Because the last thing I need is you both getting on my case right now."

"How am I getting on your case?" Kisumi retorts, putting his phone back in his pocket. "So you got a little turned on by Makoto moaning and gasping into the microphone. That only means he's extremely effective at what he does. I'm not about to make fun of you for having normal reactions to pornography."

Sousuke raises an eyebrow. That was unusually... insightful for Kisumi. "Yes... exactly," he says, still a bit wary of Kisumi's surprisingly earnest demeanour. "It's not a big deal."

"Yes, and you even managed to pass it off as an actual part of the drama," Kisumi adds, looking legitimately impressed. "You should be proud."

Before Sousuke can react properly to the idea of Kisumi giving him such aggressive approval, Sousuke's phone rings, and he sees Rin calling him. Frowning, he shows it to Kisumi who just shrugs, seemingly just as clueless as Sousuke is. How suspicious. 

He presses answer, then speaker mode. "What?"

"Hey congratulations on the whole adlib thing!"

Sousuke throws Kisumi his most venomous glare. Kisumi holds up both his hands. "I swear he didn't hear that from me."

"Yeah don't blame Kisumi Sousuke, I heard that from Haru."

Sousuke's eyes narrow. Nanase huh? He knew something was up with that guy. He makes a mental note to investigate him further. "It just slipped out okay?" he admits to Rin, seeing no point in denying it anymore. "I'm sorry I have hormones like everyone else."

There's a short confused pause at the end of the line, before: "What the hell do hormones have to do with this?"

"He got turned on by Makoto's masturbation scene," Kisumi supplies, before it registers to Sousuke that Rin was referring to  _actual adlibbing._

"Oh okay."

" _Oh okay?!_ That's all you have to say?" Sousuke asks incredulously.

"What, do you want me to act shocked?" Rin retorts. "It's Makoto. You're hardly the first person to ever get turned on by his performances."

Oh. Sousuke's not sure if that tidbit is meant to be reassuring, but at least Rin and Kisumi are not making fun of him for it. He breathes a little easier. He actually expected to be subjected to at least an hour of good-natured ribbing (Kisumi) or relentless mockery (Rin) after this disgraceful snafu, but the two of them have miraculously elected to not make a big deal of the matter.

Rin and Kisumi are both being  _reasonable._ Together. On a subject that embarrasses Sousuke to no end.

It makes Sousuke nervous.

*

On the morning of their third session, Sousuke walks into the studio with his shoulders rolled back and head held high, ready to take on his and Makoto's first love scene, the success of the previous two sessions inspiring renewed confidence within him. Now that the two of them have found out how the other works in an intimate setting, this would be a piece of cake. It's just a matter of meshing their vocals together, that's all.

Playing a sex scene as a top should not be that complicated: grunt, moan, grunt, moan, add some dirty words describing the other character's tight ass muscles in loving detail, rinse and repeat until character achieves orgasm, and then passionately yell out the other lead character's name. Established routine, practically formulaic.

_"Ahhh ahhh Ahhh hngghhh YUIIIIIII!"_

... But as it turns out, things aren't exactly that simple.

*

Sousuke walks out of the studio with Makoto and Kisumi, head hung low, and shoulders hunched in an attempt to make himself as small and inconspicuous as possible, which, given his size is a really fucking tall order, even with two similarly tall people surrounding him. He probably stands out more like this, a gloomy shadow of self-loathing sandwiched between two bright rays of sunshine.

It's pretty clear that he did a terrible job because Makoto's expression is one of sympathy, while Kisumi's shoulders are shaking with barely concealed laughter as he taps furiously on his phone, no doubt sending the sound clips to Rin.

"Don't worry Sousuke, the first time is always the most difficult one," Makoto tries to assure him, with that big dumb smile of his that makes Sousuke feel a bit warm and tingly inside, which, while appreciated, isn't really what he needs right now.

"You're too nice," he scoffs before turning to Kisumi. "Just say it okay?"

Kisumi looks at Makoto, who is apparently trying to encourage Kisumi to be gracious in his upcoming commentary via interesting eyebrow acrobatics and strategic head nodding, which, while well-meaning, only makes Sousuke feel even worse. "Well," Kisumi starts bravely, after a short pause. "It's not that bad."

Sousuke rolls his eyes and glares. "Stop fucking with me."

Kisumi sighs then throws Makoto an apologetic look, before tucking his phone back into his pocket. He sports his chesire cat grin as he throws the VA lounge doors open, taking care to close the door behind them before giving Sousuke his unabashed opinion. "Okay fine, you were downright awful."

Makoto makes a protesting sound, but Sousuke just shakes his head, and holds up a hand as he and Makoto take a seat opposite each other.

"Details?"

"Rin will be here any minute," Kisumi answers sweetly. "We'll give you our appraisals jointly."

Before Sousuke can even begin to feel sorry for himself, the door to the lounge opens and Rin strides inside, eyes flashing, mouth twisted in a foreboding grin. He looks like a hunter out for blood— not to kill, but for sport.

"I nearly ran a red light on the way here," Rin announces as he throws himself on the couch, tossing Kisumi a take-away bag filled with snacks. One needs to be well-nourished while systematically destroying their poor friend's self-esteem after all.

"Well that's your fault for listening to gay porn clips while driving," Sousuke retorts.

"Tch. Point," Rin shrugs and startles when he notices for the first time that Makoto's sitting with them. "Oh hey Makoto!" he exclaims getting up and immediately sitting down next to him, lightly nudging him on the ribs. "It's been a while. What's up? Is Haru still finding new and creative ways to simulate sex noises?"

Makoto fixes him a reproachful look, but his eyes are fond, genuinely happy to see Rin. "You know that's not all he does Rin."

Rin laughs. "Oh I _know,_ " he says with a wink. He shifts in his seat, stretching his legs in front of him as he peers at Sousuke, grin sharper than ever. "But anyway..."

Sousuke takes a deep breath and braces himself for the inevitable lambasting. "Go on, hit me."

Kisumi and Rin share a look before turning to him.

"One," Rin starts. "Your moaning sounded like a soul getting tormented in hell,"

"Your grunts sounded like a Neanderthal on his first time hunting," Kisumi supplements.

"And your orgasm sounded like you were running barefoot across hot asphalt—"

"— skidded and then stubbed your toe," Kisumi finishes.

Sousuke blinks. That's... actually not that bad, all things considered. He glances sideways at Makoto, who looks horrified at this outrageous disrespect.

"Kisumi! Rin!" Makoto cries.

Rin just shrugs unapologetically but Kisumi's grin falters and he bites his lip, torn between conceding to Makoto's chiding or sticking to his guns. "But... your pre-sex scenes with all the suave debonair teasing were pretty decent," he eventually adds as an afterthought, obviously meaning to appease Makoto.

"Thanks Kisumi," Sousuke deadpans. "I guess."

"No problem, I believe in well-rounded critique," Kisumi chirps, and proceeds to grab a fry from the paper bag Rin is passing around.

Makoto's lower lip is caught between his teeth and he's throwing Sousuke a look like he wants to scoop Sousuke up into his arms and force cuddles on him. It doesn't mitigate the fact that Sousuke really did suck balls back in there, but Sousuke appreciates it all the same.

Sousuke's phone pings, heralding a new message. Grateful for the distraction, he snatches it up. He blinks, surprised to see the message is from Rin.

> **M. Rin:**   _Now is the ideal time to act completely distressed at our reprehensible, mean behaviour and flounce on us._

He looks up and sees Rin, phone in hand, angling his head slightly towards Makoto, who is looking like he's torn between scolding Rin and comforting Sousuke. Rin sent that text a little bit too fast for someone who was holding his phone only for a few seconds. Highly suspicious.

His phone pings again and this time, it's Kisumi.

> **S. Kisumi:**   _I just played the bad cop in front of Makoto for you, you'd better appreciate this >.<_

Unbelievable. He stares at his phone, trying to gauge what he should be feeling at the moment. His friends have the best of intentions, of that there can be no doubt, but they are certifiably insane with how they go about it sometimes. He never expected that there will be a higher purpose to their joint haranguing other than crushing his ego.

He puts his phone back in his pocket and looks at Kisumi and Rin, who are both trying to cajole Makoto into eating some fries while pretending they're not hatching a devious underhanded scheme right in front of him.

On one hand, he really doesn't want to further support their totally unfounded suspicions about his so called crush on Makoto but on the other hand, he can't afford to let his pride take over when it's his career at stake here.

Rin kicks him discreetly under the table while shoving a fry into a protesting Makoto's mouth. Glaring at him, Sousuke stands up abruptly and does as he's told, fervently hoping that he's not about to regret conceding to his friends' fanciful matchmaking schemes. "I'm going out for a walk," he calls out behind him, before opening the door and leaving.

He hasn't even exited the building when he hears footsteps behind him. "Sousuke!"

Sousuke whirls around. Makoto quickly catches up to him, hands resting on his knees as he tries to catch his breath. "Do you want to practice?" he asks, once his breathing is back to normal. "I'm not sure if it'll help you but it could be worth a shot."

Sousuke raises an eyebrow, surprised. He was expecting another round of reassurance, but Makoto has seen the best possible way to tell him he needs help without actually insulting him.

"If you're worried about Kisumi and Rin being assholes, don't. Seriously Makoto, I'm used to it. You don't get to be Rin's best friend without growing a reinforced backbone."

"But..."

"Makoto. It's fine. I wouldn't be a very good VA if I couldn't take honest criticism," Sousuke answers. "And it's actually better that they were unabashedly candid about it. I'd rather have brutal honesty than sweet insincerity."

Makoto's eyes widen frantically. "Oh, I hope you didn't think I was being insincere! I just wanted to tell you we could still work on your acting and I'm willing to help."

Sousuke already gathered that— Rin and Kisumi wouldn't have pulled off that whole production number if they didn't know this would happen. Still, it's mind-boggling how Makoto looks so hopeful, like it's Sousuke who will be doing him a favour if he accepts the offer. But then again, Makoto is probably the type of person who chats with the cashiers in grocery stores and comes away thinking they're lifelong friends, so it's not really surprising that he'd genuinely enjoy helping people.

"I'm grateful for the concern but you don't have to do that, you know," he says as he approaches, hands still shoved in his pockets. "I'm sure you have better things to do with your time."

"I think getting to know an esteemed voice actor like yourself is a good way of passing my time." Makoto smiles and Sousuke is amazed at how sincere it is. "Besides, it'll help me with my role too. It's my first time performing with animal characteristics in mind."

It's reassuring to know that even a veteran like Makoto still has insecurities. Sousuke feels slightly better. "Well okay, if you're sure," he relents. He looks up at the sky, carefully considering his next words. "Do you want to do it in my place?"

Makoto grows bright red, and Sousuke only realizes too late how his question sounds, and quickly adds: "To practice. Since this isn't something we can do in public you know."

"Oh of course." Makoto nods, sounding relieved. "Lead the way then."

*

They stop by an Italian restaurant to take out some dinner, though Sousuke is keen to avoid anything with noodles, choosing to get some prawns and risotto instead. Makoto gets seafood lasagne and they both decide to split a four-cheese pizza.

Sousuke is eternally grateful that being best friends with Rin somewhat assures him that his apartment will perpetually possess some modicum of neatness for occasions like this one. He ushers Makoto into the dining room, setting down their food on the table, after which he immediately goes to his kitchen to fetch some plates and utensils. He gets a text from Kisumi as he's setting the table.

 

> **S. Kisumi:**   _Remember the birthday present I gave you? Now is the time to use it. ^^_

The present in question was a mini wine rack that came with two bottles of wine— the first one being a six-year old bottle of Merlot and the other being a three-year-old bottle of Chardonnay. The Merlot has long been consumed, but the Chardonnay is still sitting there, waiting for its special occasion.

Sousuke hardly thinks that practicing sex noises warrants opening a bottle of wine, but they are eating seafood. Besides, there's a part of him that wants to impress Makoto in some capacity, seeing as the other boy has graciously taken the time to help him address his most recent career shortcomings.

Makoto raises an eyebrow when Sousuke walks in with the green bottle nestled in a bucket of ice. "Wine helps the creative process, I've been told," he offers weakly, hoping Makoto will see this gesture for what it really is: _Thank you for doing this for me._

He pulls out a couple of long stemmed glasses and fills each to a third of the cup, watching as the bubbles rise, releasing the wine's spirits, the sight of it calming him down somewhat. Wordlessly, Makoto accepts the cup held out to him.

"To the creative process," Sousuke says, holding out his glass.

"Cheers," Makoto replies and clinks their glasses together.

*

"I've played as the top a couple of times before," Makoto says. They've finished most of their dinner and wine, the two of them both sporting identical streaks of red across their faces, eyes cloudy from the alcohol buzz. "The build-up is crucial. You need to be aggressive during the act itself but your actual orgasm should be a little subdued. Let me handle the loud moaning, that's my job."

Sousuke nods studiously, filing away this little piece of info for future reference. "Alright got it," he says. "You do such an excellent job with that by the way, I'm really impressed."

Makoto smiles modestly and takes another sip of wine. "It helps if you just put yourself into it, I guess?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know..." Makoto shifts in his place uneasily. "It's not just acting. You have to connect to what's happening and... recall something from your memories."

"So... your performance has something to do with personal experiences?" Sousuke had his suspicions, but this is the first time Makoto has said anything about that aspect of his private life.

Makoto falls silent, and he averts his eyes, the tips of his ears stained red, and Sousuke only realizes just how inappropriate that was. "You don't have to answer that," he blurts out. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me."

Makoto shakes his head. "It's okay," he assures him. He takes a deep breath and carefully raises his gaze again, meeting Sousuke's eyes evenly. "I... I'm not ashamed to admit it."

Sousuke wonders what has happened to Makoto to warrant him needing to declare this and feels a flash of protectiveness overcome him. "You should never be," he says. "Sex isn't a crime, Makoto."

"I know. It's not something I really try to hide, but neither is it anything I go door to door with, you know." The uneasiness on Makoto's pinched expression goes away, shoulders relaxing, and it suddenly occurs to Sousuke how easily Makoto revealed this part of himself to him. The cynic in Sousuke would normally call this weakness, but something tells him that Makoto is an intensely private person despite his extroversion, and personal details like his sexuality isn't something he'll entrust to _just anyone._

It's not weakness. It's trust, and Sousuke is humbled that Makoto thinks he has earned it.

Which is why Sousuke's next question is: "Who else knows?"

"Haru does. So does Nagisa and Rei. And Rin, definitely."

Sousuke nods, carefully committing this short list to memory. "Well, thank you for telling me."

"No, thank _you_ Sousuke." Makoto's doing that soft smile again, the kind where he puts his heart into it, and Sousuke's stomach does funny gymnastic exercises inside him.

 _Probably the prawns_ , he thinks desperately, _Maybe they're a bit dated or it's red tide season_. He takes a deep breath, summoning all his acting prowess to calm himself down. "I didn't say anything worth thanking for.”

Makoto shakes his head, that same stupid smile still not leaving his face. "Believe me, you did." He finishes the last of his wine, taking his time about it, lips lingering on the rim for a length of time that is bordering on obscene.

 _He's just enjoying the Chardonnay,_ Sousuke tells himself, because that was really fucking good Chardonnay okay, and Makoto is just savouring it to the last drop, that's all.

Makoto eventually puts the glass back down, and he tilts his head back, sighing, peering at Sousuke from beneath half-lidded eyes.

Sousuke wonders if it's the wine making him see things, but something in the way Makoto is looking at him has shifted— the deep, sincere appreciation on his face giving way to something less innocent, something more alluring _, inviting_. His eyes are hazy but focused, complementing the wine-induced flush dusting across his cheeks.

Sousuke look at the hand Makoto has rested on the table, at the orange wristwatch highlighting the slim line of his wrist, and swallows hard, when that hand moves closer, fingernails making crescent indents against the white linen of his tablecloth.

"Sousuke, I'm really _really_ glad I got to work with you," Makoto murmurs, when Sousuke still doesn't say anything.

Sousuke takes a deep breath. "Me too," he manages to answer, and he does mean it, despite how he's hyper aware of Makoto's body language and... voice and... words, and well Makoto's everything, basically, and he can feel his own body physically reacting to it. Those internal gut gymnastics he was experiencing earlier have decided to move the party to his groin, and he's getting way too hot around the collar, his breathing turning erratic.

Makoto's hand is dangerously close to Sousuke's; if Sousuke just moves his left pinky a few centimeters to the left, they'd be touching, and Sousuke doesn't know if he's willing to find out what will happen when they do.

Makoto bites his lip, a gesture that has no business being as attractive as it is and that's it, Sousuke can't stand it anymore. "Do you want to move?" he blurts out, because his heartbeat is approaching medically worrisome levels and if this weird tension keeps up, he might literally just _die._

Makoto doesn't budge and tilts his head to the side. "Move where?"

"The uh, den."

Makoto's brow furrows. "Den?"

"To talk. About moaning. Script." Sousuke manages to eke out, hoping that Makoto would manage to get what he means despite the words making very little sense.

Makoto's eyes widen in understanding, and he immediately retracts his hand, and it suddenly makes Sousuke feel very foolish for some reason. Which he really shouldn't, because he does _not_ have a crush on Makoto. At all. No matter what his stupid inexperienced dick is trying to tell him otherwise.

Makoto clears his throat and smiles. "Of course Sousuke," he chirps, back to his usual polite, helpful self.

Sousuke convinces himself that that was totally the effect he was going for because he invited Makoto here to his house to practice after all.

 _For practice_ , he repeats to himself, as he gestures for Makoto to follow him into the other room and finally start on the real purpose of this invite.

  
*

"So right here, Yui is suffering an itch. He's growing an inexplicable powerful reaction to Akira, and he can't understand it nor can he control it. His body is changing," Makoto explains earnestly, as he points out to his lines. "So I need to imagine being helpless and being consumed with a terrible, biological need."

Sousuke tries to imagine having an insatiable desire for sex to the point where not having any would drive him insane. Considering how his sexual experiences have been limited to a couple of drunken one night stands, some confusing sleepovers in high school and that one brief fling with his senpai, Seijuuro, his attempts to empathize fall tragically flat. His career simply made it impossible to pursue long-term romantic or sexual relationships, so he's never particularly sought these experiences out. People make the mistake of thinking that just because he's conventionally attractive and famous, things like sex would come easy to him, and maybe it would… if he actually deigned to pursue them.

As it stands, he only experiences these strong urges quite sparingly and randomly, which he supposes has served him well. Until now that is.

Because while he can't imagine being that needy and desperate on a primal biological level, he can very much imagine responding to it though. Especially if the one he'd be responding to would be...

Sousuke shakes his head and glares at the throw pillow covering his crotch, willing his hard-on to kindly wither away for the duration of their practice. Makoto, thankfully, doesn't notice his obvious fidgeting and continues with his explanation.

"Now, Akira on the other hand, has his wildest fantasies coming true. However, his genuine feelings for Yui prevent him from carrying out those same fantasies, for fear of forcing Yui to do things that are beyond his control..."

Sousuke watches the movement of Makoto's lips as he passionately explains each character's perspective and motivations, something Sousuke has admittedly not paid much attention to in the initial stages, sheer hubris making him believe that he can breeze through porn with minimal effort.

He knows better now though. He has Rin and Kisumi and Makoto to thank for that.

It's inspiring how Makoto gives his all to every project he's involved in. Sousuke's already aware that Makoto's professionalism is beyond reproach, but it's still nice to know that he genuinely cares about doing a great job, even going so far as to help his co-actors to make sure they're giving their fans a product worth listening to.

Even if said product is something as ludicrous as problematic voyeur scientists and super-powered cat boys in heat. 

 _Ludicrous but lucrative_ , Sousuke reminds himself, remembering Ryuugazaki's market research results. 

He watches Makoto again, feeling a surge of fondness well up inside him, warmth that had nothing to do with the wine blossoming from within his chest.

The money and corresponding exposure are initially the only reasons that Sousuke accepted this role. He distinctly remembers telling himself that he'll try it _once_ , just for the sake of getting Rin and Kisumi out of his hair, and adding another pretty line to his list of projects. After the disaster of today, there's even less reason for him to do this a second time. 

But then he met Makoto.

Maybe, just maybe.... once won't be enough.

*

That night, after Makoto has gone home, Sousuke finally takes the USB containing the clips of Makoto's past projects that Kisumi gave him on the day he got Akira's role, and then transfer them to his tablet.

He chooses a track where Makoto plays a mechanic having an affair with a Yakuza boss. He bottoms in this one too, and the description promises him "sensual, passionate forbidden sex." Sounds about right for his purposes. He plugs in his earphones, closes his eyes, and presses play.

The track cuts right to the action, so Sousuke doesn't have time to adequately brace himself. He absorbs the sounds as much as he can, taking in all the the little hitches in breathing, the simulation of lips gliding wetly on hot skin, the increase in tempo of pants and gasps as Makoto's character nears the edge. He shifts, letting the lustful sounds move his body, allowing himself to feel the moment completely, and let it take over.

It's only until he's staring at the sticky wad of white on his palm eight minutes later, long after the track is completed, that it occurs to him just how deeply screwed he is.

*

Sousuke doesn't see Makoto for the next four days. They don't have a session on the following day because Makoto has other commitments, some photoshoot for Seiyuu Grandprix. On Friday, it's Sousuke who is not available, as he and Rin are scheduled for an interview about their recent duet single, released prior to Sousuke's acceptance of his BL role. However, they had to cancel at the last minute, as Rin suddenly came down with the flu.

A sick Rin is a Rin everyone needs to stay clear of because he gets bossy, hotheaded and unreasonable (or at least more than his regular level of bossy hotheaded unreasonableness) demanding attention and affection to help mitigate his terrible agony. Only Gou is equipped to handle him, since Gou is the one person in the world Rin will never dare act like a whiny baby to.

Unfortunately, Gou is out of town visiting their mom in Tottori, thus leaving the task of taking care of Rin to the next emergency contact, which happens to be Sousuke.

And so, instead of happily talking about the theme of friendship and unbreakable bonds with the editor of Voice Newtype, he's in Rin's flat, forcing Rin to take his antibiotics after finishing his lunch, which Sousuke had to drive over to another district to buy (Paiten Ramen from Kichitora) because Rin's a picky bastard that way. Kisumi arrives shortly to help him, and together, they somehow manage to attend to Rin's needs without one of them getting driven up the wall.

Now, Rin is dozing off in his daybed, after Kisumi has so patiently rubbed his back and tucked him in.

Sousuke slumps back against the couch, thankful that the worst is over. "I don't know how Gou does it, I feel like I just climbed two mountains and swam across a lake," he grumbles, throwing a hand over his eyes.

"Gou-chan is a warrior princess, glad we agree," Kisumi says, similarly winded, hand resting over his heart. After catching his breath, he takes his iPad from his satchel and turns it on. "Anyway, now that we're here, I was thinking we could make good use of our time and do some research for your next session on Monday."

Sousuke takes it back. The worst is clearly not yet over. "You know, I think I need to start cooking Rin's dinner— he gets pissy if the spice is not—"

"You're not getting away with this, unless you want a repeat of the great neanderthal lovemaking disaster of the third session," Kisumi interrupts sternly. "Besides, while I have no doubt that Makoto has imparted his great BL knowledge to you, there are still some things you need to do by yourself. So suck it up, and let's do this."

Sousuke sighs. It's difficult to resist Kisumi when he's being completely serious and professional about improving Sousuke's voice acting game. There's a reason why Sousuke chose Kisumi to handle his career, despite the fact that they don't see eye to eye on many things. More than Kisumi's connections and enviable flair for managing showbiz politics, Kisumi has an uncanny sense of knowing exactly what Sousuke needs and when he needs it, whether or not Sousuke himself is aware of it.

"Fine," Sousuke eventually relents. "Let's do some research."

*

Their completely serious and professional research, as it turns out, is about the vast, prolific world of sex toys, because the next BL scene is all about Akira finding ways to address Yui's kitty-heat needs in his absence.

"This looks painful," Kisumi remarks, pointing at a large dildo with lots of protruding dots on it. "I don't think this is designed for boys."

"Did that just say that butt plug has a diameter of 13cm?" Sousuke demands incredulously pointing at neon green silicone plug that looks more like a tiny bald Christmas tree than anything that has any business going up one's rectum.

Kisumi follows his gaze and squints. "Yeah, looks like it."

Sousuke instinctively crosses his legs. "Why... why would you need to stretch your asshole to 13cm?"

"I don't know Sousuke. Maybe to pack drugs in it? Or maybe some people like to push limits," Kisumi answers distractedly as he opens "erotic restraints section" on a new tab.

Sousuke never ever wants to meet these people. Instinctively, he clutches his stomach, feeling ill. "Okay, I've seen enough. I don't need to learn this stuff Kisumi, my character's not the one who's going to use it."

"But it would still help," Kisumi argues, as he clicks on the specific usage. "Can you imagine what poor Yui is going through as Akira inserts various diabolical objects to ease into his slick, greedy hole."

 _No I don't want to imagine it_ , Sousuke thinks. Especially not when his imagination is already preoccupied with something else entirely, something made of lean muscles, crinkly green eyes and soft pink lips and would most likely not lead Sousuke to horrific body modifications. "Are you reading fanfiction again?"

"Yes," Kisumi answers without missing a beat. "Don't knock it Sousuke, some of the best things I've read are fanfiction. Also some of the worst, but that's fandom for you."

"Have you ever read anything that includes me as a character?"

Kisumi opens his mouth to reply, but he pauses instead before smiling sweetly. "Do you really want me to answer that question?"

Sousuke thinks about it for all of two seconds and shakes his head. "No, you're right, I don't."

"Ooh, these are cute! Makoto would look nice in these don't you think?"

Kisumi is pointing at a set of orange cat ears, with a corresponding swishy "tail," the end of which is nicely wrapped up in the shape of a thankfully decent sized buttplug. Regular role play fare.

"Yes, probably," he answers distractedly. Then Kisumi grins, and it strikes Sousuke as odd at first, until he replays Kisumi's words in his head. He said Makoto. Not Yui.

Fuck.

Kisumi cradles his chin in his palm. "Yes, he'd look really cute in this huh? The fur is golden brown, which perfectly matches his hair—"

"—Just stop, Kisumi," Sousuke growls in warning. The memory of Makoto's wine-flushed smile flashes in his mind and there is no way he's going to let Kisumi ruin that beautiful mental image with something so insipid and debasing. "I mean it. I'm not in the mood."

Thankfully, Kisumi gets the hint. He sighs and presses the home button of his iPad. "What's eating you?"

"Nothing. Does it really boggle your mind that it makes me uncomfortable to see sex toys that look specifically designed to mangle my body?"

"Fine then." Kisumi snaps his iPad cover closed, and stows it back into his bag. "Let's talk about something else."

"Like what?"

"Like..." Kisumi taps his chin, in some pretense of contemplation. "Do you have feelings for Makoto?"

Goddammit, why is this his _life_? "No, I don't," Sousuke lies through gritted teeth.

Kisumi doesn't believe him. Of course. "But you've jacked off to him right?"

"Since when is horniness an emotion?"

"Since when is it not?"

"Shut up, both of you, I'm sick and I have a migraine that makes me wish I'm dead," Rin growls from his spot on the bed, glaring at the two of them, very much awake by now. It doesn't look as menacing as it normally does because he's got snot dripping out of his bright red, swollen nose, making him both totally unglamorous and non-threatening.

"Rin! You're awake!" Kisumi cries, leaping up from his seat to dote on him. "I need you to tell Sousuke that he's being stupid."

Rin slowly turns himself to lay on his side, coughing. "Sousuke, if you have feelings for Makoto, you need to act on it," he says wearily.

Sousuke pinches the bridge of his nose. He was hoping to avoid this conversation, but with Rin awake now, there's no way he's coming out of this unscathed. "Why are you insisting on this? Do you date every single person you beat off to?"

"Shh. You're in denial," Kisumi says soothingly. "It's okay."

"He's not even my type." Which is technically true, because Sousuke doesn't have any known types at all.

Rin blows his nose loudly on a piece of tissue. "Of course not Sousuke, he's just the object of your dirtiest, wildest fantasies; we can tell the difference."

"It's the job okay," Sousuke argues, resenting the absolutely rude way Kisumi and Rin ignore his obviously more logical assessment of his own situation (the truthfulness of which is of course, irrelevant.) "You try hearing him moan like a fucking porn star for one hour straight and not feel horny, I dare you."

Rin sighs and throws his twenty fifth tissue wad into the waste bin beside him before fixing Sousuke the full expanse of his disapproval. "Isn't Haru with you beating eggs behind the sound booth while you and Makoto pretend to have sex with each other?"

"He was mixing ramen not eggs— and what the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"See, I can't ever get horny around that," Rin retorts. "Can you, Kisumi?"

Kisumi smiles serenely and shakes his head. "Nope, I don't believe so. You're all alone here Sousuke."

Sousuke scowls and says nothing. Trust Rin to make sense on the one time Sousuke expects him to be prissy and unreasonable. He diverts his attention towards the paper bag containing his and Kisumi's dinner, and pulls out a burger, wondering if he could somehow make himself pass out early due to grease overload later.

"See?" Rin says with a sweeping gesture, as if Kisumi's approval settled the matter. "You on the other hand, seem to completely tune out the fact that some third person is faking sound effects three meters away from you."

"Why would you think of the sound effects guy, when you're doing a sex scene?" Sousuke snaps back.

"So you look at Makoto instead right?"

"Well.. yes?" Sousuke suddenly gets the sinking feeling that he's been had but he soldiers on nonetheless, determined to see this argument through the end. "It's just that when he acts out his scenes, he really seems like he's feeling it— his face is all flushed, and his eyes get all glassy, and his eyelashes flutter a lot so that whenever I happen to look at him, he's usually wearing this hazy, half-lidded gaze. It's distracting." Sousuke takes a huge bite of his burger and chews, before noticing that Rin and Kisumi are sharing another knowing look— they've been doing that a lot as of late, which of course cannot lead to anything good.

"What?" he asks through a mouthful of bread, glaring.

Rin grins. "Sousuke, you are so far gone."

"We're just friends," Sousuke insists, almost desperately. "I swear."

*

Sousuke's bad mood continues until the next session. They're going to do the fifth porn part today, which involves creative use of toys, and other weird implements Akira has seen fit to pour his scientific credentials into.

"Good morning Sousuke," Makoto greets him, all sunshine and cheerful smiles as he approaches, bearing two cups of wonderful-smelling coffee.

"'Hey," he greets back, unable to keep the flatness out of his voice.

Makoto notices immediately. "Did you have a bad morning?"

 _I only woke up and beat my junk to the memory of your stupid sexy moaning, so. Maybe. I don't know. Not really._ "Kinda, yeah."

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that." Makoto looks genuinely saddened. "Um, here I got you coffee. Long black right?"

Sousuke stares at the proffered drink. How the heck is he supposed to keep being grumpy about this? Why is Makoto behaving like his normal, thoughtful self making it so difficult to stay mad?

"Thanks," he says after a while, and takes it.

"No problem," Makoto says back to his usual cheer. "I put double espresso on that because you mentioned you need a lot of strength for today." He gives him another brilliant smile and tilts his head to the side and that's when Sousuke notices _them._

He blinks. "... Are you wearing _cat ears_?"

Makoto's eyes widen and he reaches up to touch said ears, as if suddenly remembering they're there. "Oh! Oh yeah, Kisumi actually gave them to me— he thinks it'll help authenticate my character." He misinterprets the incredulity on Sousuke's face for disapproval and looks down, biting his lip. "Sorry, I probably look ridiculous."

"No— it's just." _That's the other half of a sex toy and sexy costume set_ , he doesn't say. The same sex toy Kisumi had been cooing over the internet last Friday as part of their "work" research.

God, he is going to _poison_ Kisumi's candy later. "It's uh, cute," he ends up mumbling, because well, it _is._ Coupled with that white knitted sweater, it is really hard to imagine that this is the same person who has made the performance of sex sounds into an art form.

Makoto brightens up, and his cheeks go pink from the praise. "Thanks! So, shall we go inside?"

Sousuke nods, and braces himself for another couple of hours of trying to keep his raging libido in check while delivering a sex scene at the same time.

*

"How come you never get hard-ons when performing?"  _Good job Sousuke, way to admit that you've been staring at his crotch._ There's a quaint irony to asking the source of his libido issues advice on how to deal with random erections, but he's getting desperate.

"Oh I do, that's inevitable," Makoto answers as he adjusts his microphone and script stand. "But I use this contraption where I can strap my penis to my thigh so it doesn't get in the way."

Sousuke blinks. "That's a thing? Where can I get one of those?"

"Well I don't really know where you can buy it, Haru made this one for me."

Sousuke is aware that Nanase and Makoto are super close telepathic BFFs, but there has to be some sort of boundaries set _somewhere._ "Nanase made it. For you," he repeats dumbly, feeling like he's just interrupted something private and Nanase isn't even here.

"Yeah, it's really useful too," Makoto answers, as if making custom dick slings are something best friends normally do for each other. His brow furrows thoughtfully. "Well if you really want one, I can ask him to—"

"—It's okay, I changed my mind, I'll just bring an ice pack or something," Sousuke interrupts.

"Are you sure? I can take your measurements, it won't be any trouble!"

Makoto clearly isn't aware of the words that are coming out of his mouth sometimes. Sousuke feels that his life would be much easier, if Makoto noticed this obvious character flaw.

"No, it's fine Makoto," he sighs, fighting the urge to bury his face in his hands.

"Okay, but remember Sousuke, if there's anything you need, or anything I can do at all to help, don't hesitate to tell me okay?" Makoto says, with such obvious sincerity on his face, Sousuke feels a little guilty for imagining himself doing dirty things to it. " _Anything._ I mean it."

"I know," Sousuke mumbles. He looks down, suddenly feeling self-conscious, even if it's Makoto who technically admitted to wearing a contraption for his dick here. "I really appreciate you looking out for me, you know. Thank you."

Makoto's downturned eyes grow softer, and he reaches forward, fingers ghosting on Sousuke's wrist for the briefest of moments, and Sousuke immediately feels his pulse spike. "You're welcome."

  
*

"So basically, Makoto has volunteered to help you out in _any_ way."

"Yes."

"And then prior to that, he keeps telling you that it's practical application that helped him get to where he is now."

"Yes."

"And what did you say?"

"I said I really appreciate how he's looking out for me."

"...Goddamit Sousuke, stop being stupid, it doesn't suit you."

"I don't like to assume things okay, what if he's just being attentive and helpful, and I just have a... dirty mind."

"Sousuke, he performs sex sounds for a living, I'm pretty sure he knows what he's volunteering for."

"...You can't know that for sure. Until I hear the words 'I want you' from Makoto, I will keep my respectful distance."

*

"I want you," Makoto breathes, his voice husky, eyes gone dark with barely leashed desire from beneath his glasses-- or at least from Sousuke's perspective. Nagisa turned down the room lights for atmospheric purposes, so he could barely make out Makoto's features, but Sousuke has fresh images from this past weekend's dream cache, so it's not like juxtaposing those mental pictures on Makoto's live voice is difficult. "Please oh _please_ , I can't take it anymore."

Sousuke nearly forgets to say his next lines, so engrossed is he in following the way the tip of Makoto's tongue traces his upper lip to wet them for all the moaning he will be doing in the next five minutes.

"You already have me," he manages to read aloud just in time, with the appropriate level of seductive machismo required for his character.

His declaration is immediately followed by an obnoxiously loud zipping noise, which is then followed by the sound of something hitting the floor. Sousuke briefly glances at the sound booth, where Nanase is putting away a pair of army pants.

"Mmm, oh Akira-san, it's straining against your underwear," Makoto moans, sounding like he's about to go to town on Akira-san's majestic dick. "Please, won't you set it free?"

Jeez, a full CD series chock full of gay sex and Sousuke's yet to hear either Akira or Yui call a cock a cock. "I want you to be the one to set it free, Yui-kun," Sousuke finally answers, and makes a face at his next line. "Then I'd like you to capture it again." He pauses and lets his voice drop an octave, fighting hard not cringe. "With your mouth."

There's another loud, thump, presumably the sound of Yui-san's knees hitting the floor, followed by more rustling of clothing.

Makoto giggles, small and dainty, and it sounds so _weird_ coming from him, though it would not be out of place for Yui. "And thus the hunted, becomes the hunter," Makoto says, which is pretty much the weirdest reference to a blowjob that Sousuke's ever heard in his life.

This is immediately followed by loud, slurping sounds that are supposed to represent some serious dick sucking. Sousuke makes the mistake of squinting at Makoto, only to see him brandishing a bright blue popsicle from somewhere and _thoroughly_ enjoying it.

It's a good thing that there's minimal requirement on Sousuke's end for this scene, as he only needs to grunt and gasp occasionally— 90% of the titillation factor is all on Makoto. He watches as Makoto closes his lips around the cold sticky treat, and wonders what it says about him that he's feeling irrationally jealous of a popsicle.  
  
Then Makoto looks up. And then a series of unfortunate events happen.

They make eye contact, something that one should never ever do when partaking of food with phallic proportions, and the sheer awkwardness of the situation makes Sousuke swallow saliva down the wrong pipe.

Which in turn, causes Makoto to accidentally bite off the popsicle just when he has slid half of it in his mouth. Subsequently, he chokes on it.

Surprisingly enough, the resulting cacophony somehow turns out to be just the right blend of choking, slurping and deep intakes of breath to simulate an actual honest-to-god blowjob, due in part to Nanase's efforts in combining the fitting accompanying sound effects. Sousuke may not like him very much, but he has to admit, Nanase is a genius in this respect.

All in all, it made for an accidentally successful fellatio scene, good enough for Hazuki to decide against any retakes.

So today, Sousuke endured god-awful dialogue, jealousy against inanimate objects and literally choking on his own spit.

But Makoto's leaning against him now, laughing into his shoulder, and Sousuke's laughing with him, the two of them sharing and enjoying this lovely moment of workplace hilarity, and suffice it to say, it's one of the best voice-acting sessions Sousuke's ever done in his life. 

*

It's ten PM on a weeknight, and Rin and Kisumi are once again making themselves at home in Sousuke's apartment for their regular Tuesday drinking session. Rin is now on his third beer bottle, which means he's just at that stage of intoxication where he latches on to a certain topic to argue about and refuses to let go, until he's either exhausted the other party into conceding or if he's exhausted himself to the point of passing out.

Unsurprisingly, and much to Sousuke's chagrin, Rin's current subject of interest is him and Makoto.

"So you're this chicken and Makoto's this big piece of juicy corn just laying on your path, which for some reason, you refuse to peck."

Sousuke understands all the words in that sentence but he just can't see the logic of them strung together. "Go to sleep Rin, you're drunk."

"Shut up and no, I'm not." Rin stands up without losing his balance, as he walks purposefully toward the table housing the other bottles.

Despite the topic being one Sousuke would rather avoid, it's been a while since Rin has launched into this particular drunken habit, so Sousuke decides to humour him. "Okay fine, why am I a chicken?"

"It's symbolic okay."

"Symbolic of what?"

"You.” Kisumi blurts out from his position on the carpeted floor, elbows leaning on top of the coffee table. “Because you're a cock." He blinks and then bursts out giggling, and Sousuke never wanted to disown his friends so much. "Because cock is the same as dick, get it?"

"That sentence just killed more brain cells than all the alcohol I've consumed this week."

"You're a chicken because you're scared and you're stupid," Rin says, holding a hand up to assure Kisumi that he'll handle this.

"Thank you for that inspiring vote of confidence," Sousuke replies sarcastically, and takes another swig of his beer. "Your analogy still doesn't make sense by the way."

"I'm not done yet! See, Makoto is corn because he's sweet, juicy and golden and you want to unpeel him."

"Also he has brown hair, like corn," Kisumi adds.

Sousuke slams his bottle down on the table and scoffs. "That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"No,  _you're_  stupid, Sousuke," Rin retorts. "Can't you see, Makoto is this juicy corn on your path who is just _begging_ for you to eat him and you're this dumb blind chicken who keeps crossing the wrong fucking roads."

Sousuke rubs a hand on his temple, feeling his own alcohol intake starting to affect him. "Rin, I'm really not in the mood to process your stupid extended mixed metaphors so can you just. Not?"

"They're not stupid, I'm a genius," Rin scoffs, swaying a little as he plops himself beside Kisumi on the floor, ignoring the perfectly serviceable couch behind them. "But then again, what do you know, you're just a dumb chicken."

Sousuke closes his eyes and groans imploringly at the ceiling. "Is there anything I can say to make this conversation end faster?" he begs to no one in particular. Maybe if he whines loudly enough, some gracious deity can finally smite him where he stands and end his misery.

“You’ll see what I mean soon,” Rin slurs, before promptly faceplanting on Kisumi's lap.

*

On the last day of recording, Makoto shows him the cover of their CD. Despite the ridiculous premise, their series art is _gorgeous_ , if a bit stereotypical, with their main characters cuddling on the couch in front of a fire place, while Pu-chan dozes on Yui's lap. Akira is the textbook seme, looking classically handsome in a white lab coat and glasses, while Yui is the very definition of sweet pure uke, smiling sunnily as he relaxes against Akira, dressed in an oversized white sweater with moe sleeves and no pants. Actually, if seen out of context, the cover just looks like two men cooing over a psychedelic pink cat.

"This is really pretty," he remarks, as he hands the CD back to Nagisa.

"Thanks," a monotonous voice answers behind him and Sousuke whirls around to see Nanase placing down his huge briefcase of sound effects on his usual desk.

"You drew this?" Fuck, what did Nanase  _not_  do in this studio?

"Yeah!" Makoto pipes up, looking so proud. "He's still the one who draws all the covers of our CDs actually."

"I always draw Makoto's characters," Nanase quips before opening his briefcase and studying the contents. "Makoto. Ramen or Udon."

Makoto taps his chin thoughtfully. "Well, this is the last scene of my character in his final stretch of heat, and Nagisa said there'll be lots of slick stuff going on, plus a lot of bouncing so... something a little wetter?"

Before Nanase can reply, Hazuki comes out from nowhere and screeches to a stop right beside Haru. "I got you spaghetti," he announces, handing Nanase a transparent plastic container.

"Thanks," Nanase answers, and opens the lid.

The mouth-watering smell of tomatoes and meatballs instantly hits Sousuke's nose and he breathes in, suddenly realizing what he's getting for lunch later. Then he sees Nanase placing the container on his desk, and marking it with a number along with his other sound effects, and that lunch thought immediately goes down the drain.

"Wait are you seriously using spaghetti for sound effects?" he blurts out, feeling mildly offended.

Nanase blinks at him. "Yes?"

"Why?!"

"We need noodles for the love scenes, and since this one is specifically about fucking against the wall, it has to have thick sauce and just this side of overcooked noodles consistency," Nanase replies solemnly.

"Yeah, there's this fast food place down the street that always has this type of spaghetti so it works out," Hazuki adds.

Sousuke stares at them. "You're fucking with me."

Hazuki giggles sheepishly and raises his hand, and making a peace sign. "You're right I didn't buy it. I just borrowed Rei-chan's lunch."

"He's going to look for that you know," Makoto chides gently.

"I'll return it afterwards. The sauce will be well mixed in with the noodles by then."

"That," Sousuke starts, with all the disdain he can inject into his voice. "Is disgusting."

"What, it's not like we're spitting on it,"Hazuki protests. "We're just mixing it next to a recorder."

The look on Sousuke's face must be excessively horrified because Hazuki giggles, and slaps him hard on the bicep. "We're kidding Sou-chan! Besides, Rei hates meat sauce, he's all about being organic with olive oil and fresh herbed tomatoes and stuff."

"Okay. For a moment I thought I'm never going to give business to an Italian restaurant ever again."

"Oh we still use spaghetti with meatballs," Nanase answers tonelessly. "But in order not to waste it, after we're done, we just feed it to Dick."

Sousuke suddenly feels faint. "You feed it to... what?"

"To Dick," Nanase repeats.

"Dick is Nagisa's dog," Makoto supplies helpfully.

Sousuke doesn't foresee noodles in his immediate and far off future.

Hazuki claps happily and pushes Sousuke to his spot. "Kitty-in-heat wall sex time! Chop chop!"

*

And so, on the last and final day of recording, everything goes just as planned. Sousuke's moaning is perfect, he and Nanase have gone in-sync without a hitch, and Makoto performs a fifteen-minute triple orgasm scene without a single retake, a feat that has Kisumi going starry-eyed with awe.

That is, until his worst nightmare comes true.

No, he doesn't accidentally snort while pretending to have an earth-shattering orgasm, nor does he break out into a laughing fit when the sound effects make it sound like they're fucking in a vat of lube. He doesn't even spring a boner despite the fact that Makoto's sex-wrecked voice was hot enough to raise the dead.

No, he doesn't do any of those things.

He just yells out the wrong name.

*

Sousuke buries himself deeper under his covers, pressing a pillow around his ears and trying to drown out the continuous buzzing of his apartment's doorbell. He watches as the phone sitting on the desk beside his bed blinks, vibrating uselessly, signalling what is probably his 20th missed call.

"Sousuke! Open up, come on, you can't miss your own celebration party." Kisumi calls out from behind the door.

The buzzing is soon replaced by a furious pounding, and this time, Rin's angry voice bellows through the wood. "Sousuke, open this door right now. Look, who cares if you called out the wrong name—"

"—Go away Rin, I'm not feeling well," he yells back, because there is no way he's letting Rin finish that sentence. It's bad enough that he keeps replaying that scene in his head, the way everything was already so perfect, Makoto looking so proud of him, and then he just had to fuck it all up. Makoto is probably terrified of him now, especially since he knows Sousuke is also relying on his own perverted fantasies to augment his voice acting game, and if that doesn’t scream “freak,” he doesn’t know what it is.

"Sick is it? Fine. If you don't come out in the next 30 seconds, I'm going to tell Makoto that you're not going to attend your own celebration party because you've been jacking off so much you got dehydrated."

Why is he friends with such rampant sadists? Sousuke throws off his blankets, almost getting whiplash with how fast he sat up.

He stomps towards the entrance of his apartment and yanks the door open, nearly getting a faceful of Rin's fist, which is now an angry red from all the pounding. "I don't want to go."

"Are you worried that everyone in the party will be gossiping about you and Makoto?" Kisumi asks, straight to the point. "Because I assure you, only the people in the studio knows about your little mishap, and I'm pretty sure they're the same people who are aware of what's going on with you two anyway."

"I talked to Nagisa and he told me that Makoto is used to this kind of reaction. You're making a big deal out of nothing," Rin adds, arms folded in front of him. "Get dressed."

Sousuke refuses to budge and doesn't let them land a single foot into his threshold. "I don't want to, Rin," he says, voice low and unflinching. "For once, can you actually respect my wishes and leave. Me. Alone."

Rin doesn't budge either, and he steps even closer, their chests almost brushing. He's strangely calm, which would normally be a point of concern, but Sousuke is too irate to think about it. "Sure. But the thing is Sousuke, what you want to do and what you want to happen are sometimes vastly different, and we as your friends, just want you to end up with the latter one."

"How do you know what I want to happen?" Sousuke snaps, feeling his temper rising to levels he hasn't experienced in years. "You've been making decisions for me since you landed me this role. Heck, I wouldn't even be here if you didn't sign me up for the job!"

"And how is that a bad thing, exactly?"

Sousuke clenches his jaw. He hates it when Rin is being reasonable. "I said I'm not going." He grasps the doorknob and makes a move to slam the door in their faces.

A hand immediately shoots out to halt it. "Sousuke," Kisumi whispers, his arm trembling as he pushes against the wood. "Makoto _likes_ you."

The protective steel Sousuke has forced around his heart bends a little but he stays his ground, because his friends are not saying anything new, they're just saying it differently. "You don't know that."

"Yes we do. In case you haven't noticed, Makoto's our friend too," Kisumi answers quietly.

They're right. And truth be told, for all that Rin and Kisumi have been quite aggressive about their investment in Sousuke's romantic life, they've never pushed the limit too far, or betrayed his confidence. They could have easily already told Makoto about the depth of Sousuke's feelings, seeing as they get a front row view to it almost every other night, just to settle the matter once and for all, but they didn't, ultimately letting Sousuke move on his own pace and in his own time.

Slowly, Sousuke's grip on the door slackens, and he lets his arm drop to his side, the fight going out of him. He sighs, the breath rattling out of him in a long exhale, as he lifts his head to give them a lopsided smile. "You two," he starts wearily, fighting hard not to laugh at the way Rin and Kisumi just _beam_ at him for his concession. "Are either going to kill me or make me the happiest man tonight."

  
*

The post production party is held at, surprise surprise, _Nanase's_ house, something that no longer surprises Sousuke, because he has long since accepted the fact that Nanase is this ubiquitous deity sent from above to forever be in the periphery of Sousuke's vision wherever Makoto is concerned.

Speaking of Makoto, Sousuke is still studiously avoiding him, despite everything Rin and Kisumi just told him. It's not that he doesn't trust them— he just doesn't trust himself not to act like a dumbstruck tool. He needs to get Makoto alone, and not in front of a bunch of strangers who may or may not have heard the embarrassing tale of the Boy Who Cried Out The Wrong Name.

Avoiding Makoto, as it turns out, is no easy task, seeing as how the two of them easily tower over 90% of the guests in the party. Still, he miraculously succeeds, and so far, no one seems to regard him with suspicion—everyone is just congratulating him for successfully finishing his first BL project. Even Nanase is somewhat nice to him. Or well, he's not ignoring Sousuke at least, though Sousuke thinks it's only because Rin is talking enough for the both of them.

"Has it ever occurred to you that you can actually afford to get a caterer now?" Rin comments, frowning at the copious amounts of mackerel dishes on the table.

Nanase looks at him like he's crazy. "Why would I hire anyone else to cook for me?" he says as he loads his own plate with food.

"I don't know, so you don't have to do everything yourself?"

"That's a waste of money," Nanase quips. "If you don't like the food, there's an open bar in the garden."

Sousuke's ears perk up at that. Alcohol. Yes, that is what he needs right now; maybe if he gets blitzed hard enough, he could wake up in a far off future where his clothes are no longer in style and Makoto has thankfully forgotten about that humiliating incident.

Rin seems to prefer that option too though probably for the opposite reasons, because he nudges Sousuke, the familiar spark of a new challenge gleaming in his eyes. "Wanna try Nagisa's mixes? I've been told they're extremely effective."

"If you do, try not to vomit on anything important," Nanase adds, before taking his leave and walking away.

*

Judging from the number of party goers plastered against various vertical surfaces in the house with uniformly vacant expressions on their faces and red plastic cups in their hands, it's safe to conclude that Hazuki's concoctions really must be something else. Sousuke rethinks his position about acquiring one of them for his own purposes-- while he certainly won't object to being knocked out cold into the next decade, he doesn't want to be caught with a dopey perma-smile on his face for the duration of his coma.

He goes for the tap craft beers instead, filling a chilled mug with a dark IPA blend. If he's not going to get shit-faced drunk, he might as well drink something he enjoys.

Beside him, Rin snatches a Nagisa special from a passing waiter, eyeing the frothy neon blue mix with great fascination.

"Have you seen Kisumi?" Sousuke asks, taking a long sip from his mug. Damn, it's _good._

"No, but he'll turn up eventually." Rin drinks his weird blue shot in one go and shudders. "Fuck that's _strong._ Have you seen Makoto? I haven't seen him _anywhere_ and you guys are supposed to be the stars of this party."

"No." And Sousuke would like to keep it that way for the next hour or so, or at least until he downs enough social lubricants to make talking to his crush a much less embarrassing affair.

"Dumb chicken," Rin mutters. Then he blinks, brow furrowed like a cow just wandered through the tracks of his thoughts. He shakes his head, and brings a finger to his ear. "Fuck, I think I'm hearing things."

"I told you taking questionable substances on an empty stomach is inadvisable."  
  
"Shut up, no seriously, I think I hear Kisumi."

Sousuke rolls his eyes. "One drink and you're down? You're losing your—"

"Kisumi please?"

The two of them stop as Makoto's unmistakable pleading voice slips out from _somewhere._ Rin holds a finger to his lips and gestures for Sousuke to follow. The two of them step closer to a door on the left, slightly ajar.

"...If you could just tell me how he feels."

Sousuke distinctly feels his heart stuttering to an erratic rhythm, thrown off course by a jolt of hope, the kind he has never allowed himself to feel until now. He holds his breath and moves a little closer. From here, he can see Makoto sitting down on the guest bed, elbows crooked on his knees, a despondent look on his face. Kisumi sits beside him, rubbing his back consolingly.

"Makoto, I really like you but I can't betray Sousuke's confidence. The best thing you can do is make your move and _tell_ him."

"But I've dropped all the hints I could and I don't know what to do next..."

Sousuke sucks in a breath, and he immediately claps a hand to his mouth. Beside him, Rin is grinning, pumping his fist victoriously, now that there's really no way that Sousuke would not get it into his thick stubborn skull that what he just witnessed right now is what he's been waiting for all this time.

"Have you tried dropping the moe act and I don't know, grabbing his crotch?" Kisumi suggests. "Believe me, I know Sousuke and that would be a  _really effective_  hint."

"... That's sexual harrassment."

"Point. Okay fine, drop the moe act and ask permission to grab his crotch, how about that."

Sousuke doesn't know whether to strangle Kisumi or give him a pay raise.

"Here's your chance," Rin whispers, and before Sousuke can even figure out what’s happening, Rin pushes him and the door open, making him almost trip on his shoes as he stumbles ungracefully into the room.

Makoto immediately jumps from his seat, looking pale.

"Sorry, I thought this was the bathroom," Sousuke lies, as he stands up, catching his balance. He is going to _kill_ Rin later. Or kiss him, depending on how the night works out. "What are you guys doing? I hope I'm not interrupting something."

Kisumi grins and stands up. "Oh but you really should have. We were talking about c—"

"—CAMPING!" Makoto hurriedly interjects, voice high pitched and terrified.

"Camping?" Sousuke echoes, not sure whether to be amused or affronted that Makoto would think he'd fall for something so lame.

"Uh... yeah." Makoto looks down at his folded hands, obviously flustered at having to keep up this bold-faced lie. "You know... communing with nature and all."

"Sousuke has never tried but I bet he'd like to commune with you," Rin says, coming from behind and slinging an arm around Sousuke.

"No I've—"

He's interrupted by a second arm winding its way around his shoulders, latching on to his other side. "Of course he would," Kisumi jumps in. "All night long even."

Sousuke tries to struggle out of the two’s hold on him. "What are you—"

"—Makoto's a highly experienced camper," Rin continues, refusing to let Sousuke get a word in edgewise. "Extremely adept at handling... _wood._ "

Makoto makes a weird desperate noise and buries his face in his hands. "R-Rin, come on..."

"Oh don't be modest Makoto!" Kisumi cajoles. "I've been told that you are an expert at creating fire with two... _sticks._ "

"So what do you say, Makoto?" Rin asks, winking. He actually _winks._ Sousuke wants to hit him. "Won't you ah, show him the _ropes_?"

Makoto looks startled to be asked for an opinion. Not that Sousuke can blame him, he himself feels like a spectator to his own love story, which is an unfortunate side effect of being friends with Matsuoka Rin. "Yes," he squeaks out, looking at Sousuke helplessly. "I don't mind."

"Fantastic. And what about you Sousuke?"

"Well..." he starts, looking at Kisumi, who is shooting him expectant, encouraging looks, then shifts his gaze to Rin, who is giving him the patented "Sousuke-you're-my-best-friend-and-i-love-you-but-if-you-fuck-this-up-i-swear-to-god-i-will-brain-you-with-the-next-blunt-object-i-see" look. He gulps and grasps the bottle tightly in his hands, resigning himself to his inevitable fate. "I can... _pitch a tent?_ " he ekes out.

Kisumi looks so proud of him, and that's when Sousuke realizes with a certain degree of horror that he has actually played along with this display of bad innuendo. He feels heat climbing up his neck, spreading to to the rest of his extremities, and even to his beer mug. He quickly takes a huge gulp of his drink, occupying his mouth with alcohol before any more dumb words can sneak out of it.

Makoto actually smiles, like Sousuke promised him the sun and stars instead of evasively asking him out using really lame metaphors. He's still blushing like a fire engine, tucking his hair behind his ear as he stands up, slowly approaching Sousuke.

Kisumi and Rin slowly untangle themselves from Sousuke, and Rin discreetly takes the beer mug from his grasp.

Sousuke nervously racks his brain for a way to gracefully ask Makoto to fuck this party and relocate somewhere more horizontal. "So let's—"

"—Yes," Makoto interrupts happily. He leans in close, his lips grazing Sousuke's ear, and Sousuke gets a whiff of his cologne, a light citrusy fragrance that was the cherry on top of the UST Sundae tonight’s turning out to be, and it takes all of Sousuke's will not to kiss him right there and then. "I'll see you outside, okay?" Then with an acknowledging nod to both Kisumi and Rin, he disappears back into the throng of party goers, presumably to bid everyone and their mother goodbye.

Sousuke on the other hand, has no such patience— the sooner he gets out of here and finds himself in Makoto's pants, the better.

Unfortunately, as one of the two stars of the party, his plans of escaping is almost immediately thwarted when he sees two inevitable forces coming in his general direction. Fangirls, and Nanase Haruka.

He stops, and turns to his left: "Kisumi."

"On it," Kisumi says, breezing past him and intercepting the two women, two flutes of champagne magically appearing in both his hands.

To his right, he sees Haru closing in on them, eyes suspiciously narrowed, because he probably already knows what Sousuke is planning to do because he and Makoto share a brain or something. Sousuke elbows Rin on the side. "Rin."

"Leave it to me," Rin assures him, as he steps right in front of Haru. "Yo Haru, I bet you can’t drink 8 of Nagisa’s fun shots in a single sitting.”

His two interceptors taken care of, Sousuke hurriedly weaves through the throng of people, clearing a path towards the front door. He's almost at the coat rack when...

"Sou-chan!"

 _Crap, caught._ Sousuke winces when he hears the director's shrill voice behind him. He takes a deep breath and turns around halfway, almost stumbling back when Hazuki skids to a stop just in front of him, balled up fists held to his side.

"Hazuki-san, hey," he says, hoping he sounds as apologetic as he's definitely not feeling. "I was just looking for you."

Hazuki pouts. "Are you leaving already?" he whines.

Sousuke racks his brain for a suitable excuse and comes up empty. "... Yes."

"What? Where you going?"

"Um. Camping."

"Camping? It's 10 PM!"

"I uh, I promised a friend I'll catch up."

"What kind of friend would ask you camping at this— ow, Rei-chan!"

Relief instantly floods through Sousuke as he catches sight of the esteemed marketing director neatly situating himself between Hazuki and Sousuke.

Ryuugazaki's glasses gleam as he pushes them up his nose. "Learn to read the mood Nagisa," he whispers through his teeth, and Sousuke briefly wonders just how many people know about his and Makoto's awkward mating dance at this point in time. He turns towards Sousuke and nods. "You should not keep your friend waiting."

"Oh. Ohhhh." Hazuki's mouth makes a perfect little 'O 'as he realizes what's happening. He clamps his hand over his mouth, trying to inhibit his squeals. "Okay, don't forget to wear a—"

"Nagisa-kun!"

"... Raincoat!" Hazuki finishes. "You know, I heard it's going to rain, so just... precautions! Against the wet!" He looks a little too happy for someone worried about his friends potentially catching a cold.

"Right." Sousuke answers hollowly, walking the last few steps to the door backwards. "Well, bye."

Sousuke grabs his coat and slips out the door before anyone else can further question his bizarre camping plans. His breath makes little puffs in the cold autumn air, as he breaks into a jog, trying to find Makoto. When he turns the corner, Makoto is already there, leaning  against a dark blue Mitsubishi Montero Sport, hands stuffed under his armpits. He lights up when he sees Sousuke, the way he usually does, and it suddenly strikes Sousuke that Makoto has been giving him this same smile for the past couple of weeks, and it's only now that he's realizing the significance of it. If Sousuke could go back in time, he'd kick his past self in the ass.

"What took you so long?" Makoto asks, as Sousuke gets nearer.

Sousuke winces. "Sorry, Hazuki caught me and tried to grill me about—"

"—I wasn't talking about the party," Makoto interrupts softly. He pushes himself off the hood of the car, and takes the last few steps forward until he's standing right in front of Sousuke. The orange street light falls on the slope of his shoulders, wrapping around him like a fist, and when he meets Sousuke's gaze, his eyes are almost glowing from beneath the fall of his lashes. His hands drop to his sides, and one of them moves uncertainly as if deciding whether or not to grab Sousuke's hand. "I was giving you all the signs."

Sousuke takes a brief look around to see if there's anyone else in the nearby vicinity. Finding no one, he takes Makoto's hand in his before he can think too hard about it. "I'm sorry," he says, cursing his tragically misguided bull-headedness for probably the hundredth time tonight. "I'm a dumb chicken."

Makoto's brow furrows and Sousuke wants to kick himself because wow, way to kill the mood. "Chicken?"

"Long story," Sousuke hurriedly replies. "Ask Rin about it one day."

"Okay." Makoto looks at their hands, then at him, and this is when Sousuke realizes what is supposed to happen. The moment is perfect: deserted street corner, autumn leaves swirling on the ground around them, Makoto looking ethereal against incandescent light, the two of them standing close enough for the cloud of their breaths to mingle between their lips.

Sousuke's heart is beating so loudly against his ribs. _Don't fuck this up_ , Rin's voice warns in his head, and Sousuke thinks _Screw it_ and—

—The sound of laughter coming from around the corner interrupts them and Makoto all but jumps back, the cloudiness in his eyes replaced by panic.

Thwarted. Again.

Sousuke seethes when the small party of four college-aged kids pass by them, a couple of them glancing curiously at both Makoto and Sousuke. His frustration reaches critical levels-- he is not a violent person by any sense of the word but he's never been suffused with the urge to dropkick someone so badly.

Makoto immediately notices the rage on his face, and quickly touches his arm.

"Just. Please get in the car," he says quietly, as he hurries towards the driver's seat.

Frustrated, Sousuke takes shotgun, nearly maiming himself when he almost slams the door on his leg in his haste to close the door. "How long is the drive to your house?" he asks, as Makoto pulls out out of the parking space with surprising speed, tires screeching as they peel out into the road.

"Fifteen minutes." Makoto answers. He gasps when Sousuke nonchalantly rests a hand on his thigh, fingers slightly gripping the dark denim fabric.

"Too long."

"Sousuke." Makoto's tone is stern, but his eyes are filled with mirth. "Behave."

Sousuke scowls but retracts his hand, which was halfway to situating itself closer to Makoto's crotch. "Just so we're clear, we're going to have sex right?"

Makoto's blush is visible even in dim light but his voice is steady and determined when he answers: "Yes."

Finally. Sousuke leans back against the seat, satisfied. He's getting really tired of speaking in code. "Do you know how many people have apparently been waiting for this moment?"

"For us to go camping?"

Sousuke throws Makoto a deadpan look and Makoto laughs.

"I'm kidding." Makoto pulls to a stop as the light turns red. He shifts towards Sousuke, eyes crinkled playfully at the corners. "Maybe we should record ourselves and call it career practice."

"Voice camp," Sousuke breathes. "That's... that's actually genius."

The brake lights of the SUV in front of them casts Makoto's profile in a harsh red glow, and lends a dangerous spark to Makoto's smile— his eyes suddenly infused with a hunger Sousuke never even thought Makoto is capable of.

It makes Sousuke shiver, thrill seeping into every single one of his bones. He clenches the fabric of his coat a little tighter.

"I want to hear the real you Sousuke," Makoto whispers, his voice honey-sweet and dripping with promise.

"You will," Sousuke answers firmly.

Fifteen minutes can't pass quickly enough.

*

They reach Makoto's apartment in ten.

Makoto calls out a hasty "good evening" to the gawking receptionist, before practically jumping into the elevator, Sousuke at his heels.

"Cameras," Makoto says before Sousuke can even make his move, pointing up at the elevator door.

Sousuke sighs. He's never been good at delayed gratification. However, he endures and keeps his hands to himself despite the tent he has pitched (hey, he's a guy that keeps his promises alright), that Makoto has surely noticed. It gives him a certain satisfaction that Makoto also has his own impressive tent though. The walk to his unit is very awkward, with Makoto practically waddling to his door.

"Shower!" Makoto squeaks when they finally get inside, and Sousuke's hand immediately makes a beeline for Makoto's zipper.

Sousuke rests his forehead on the door and groans. "Are you _serious_?"

Makoto nods frantically. "I uh, I need to prepare and clean, I promise I won't take long! Feel free to tour the house!" he calls out behind him as he enters a door on the far left and slams it.

With nothing better to do, Sousuke sighs and takes it upon himself to explore the place as Makoto said.

Makoto's condominium reflects his success in the industry— it's spacious and modern, with impeccable interior design, quirky furniture, and state-of-the-art appliances. He also apparently likes his gadgets and games, judging by the massive plasma TV, three different game consoles, each one with their own box and a whole bookshelf filled with video games sorted by console.

Sousuke wanders into Makoto's bedroom, hearing the shower going on behind the bathroom door. He sits on the bed, wondering if it's proper date etiquette to just take off his clothes and wait for Makoto to jump him.

He's finally here, after all this time. Though he really can't understand why this waiting is necessary. If Sousuke had his way, they wouldn't even make it to the bedroom. For someone who has apparently waited so long for Sousuke to make his move, Makoto sure has a funny way of showing it.

The sounds of running water stop, and Sousuke hears the rattle of a towel rack. He scowls down at his dick— it hasn't flagged a single bit since he stepped into the car which is both impressive and worrying.

Maybe that's why he's being being so thick-headed, his mental faculties are temporarily impaired due to the extra blood dedicated to maintain his dick.

He moves closer and notices the open drawer, where a conspicuous silver cap is peeking out. Lube probably. He should probably take it out now, they could shave off a few extra seconds by putting the lube within easy reach, instead of having to fumble around for it later.

He pulls it out, notices several boxes of condoms of all kinds neatly stacked to the side and...

His jaw drops open when he sees the rest of the contents.

There's the sound of a throat clearing behind him, and he whirls around, seeing Makoto in nothing but a towel, a few rivulets of water still dripping down his chest.

Judging from how his blush has spread throughout the rest of his body, he probably caught Sousuke snooping into his toy drawer. "I umm, did a lot of research for my... um, craft," he ekes out, refusing to meet Sousuke's eyes.

Sousuke stands up and licks his lips, his hunger starting anew at the delectable sight in front of him. "Research huh? So that's what you're calling it these days?" he teases, as he hooks his thumbs on Makoto's towel and drags him closer.

Makoto smiles again, soft and eager, and Sousuke thinks that BL tropes are wrong, so _wrong_ , size difference is fucking overrated, when this right here is proof that being on the same height is just  _perfect._  He can see Makoto's lips part scant inches away from his own, can feel the warm minty breath directly mingling with his, no need to move, no need to stoop or tiptoe around.

"Isn't this what you're doing now too?" he asks, not moving away.

"Among other things," Sousuke murmurs, moving closer, leaving the smallest calculable space between them.

"Then, you can call this whatever you want," Makoto whispers, and then just like that, he closes in, and it's finally the end of a long hesitation.

~fin~

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhhh sorry for the lack of smut, I kind of ran out of steam and time to finish that bit OTL. I actually have several scenes that continue past the last bit of the story (including the smut ahahahahaha) so I might write it in a sequel someday, or add a second chapter. Not promising anything though, so for now, this fic is marked complete for all intents and purposes.
> 
> Credit for Pu-chan's full name goes to my twitter friends Hal and Lexy.<3


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